White attacks them straight away. If now 12…c4 theory says that the hanging pawns – no longer side by side – have been weakened, with the d-pawn being backward, and White having the use of the hole on d4. So now 12…Ne4 plays itself.

12…Ne4 13 Bxe7 Qxe7 14 Rc1 Rac8

Here Fritz says I could win a pawn on b4, but it looked to me like there was something nasty on the b-file. Apparently not: 14…cxb4 15 axb4 Qxb4 16 Nb5 Ndc5 17 Rb1 Qa5=/+

15 bxc5 Ndxc5 16 Bb1

So now I have another theoretical bone of contention: the IQP.

16…Rfd8 17 Nd4 Qf6 18 f3

Kicking the knight out of e4 and perhaps guarding against …Ba6, but he has weakened e3 which may yet tell against him.

18…Nxc3 19 Rxc3 g6

Securing the f5 square against invasion, but also creating a block on the b1-h7 diagonal (Qc2 was possible) and making a flight-square for the king.

Now 51 Qf6 is met by 51…Qf5+ so White stopped the clocks, before his flag could fall.

0-1

DIVISION B FIXTURES

Date

Opponents

Venue

3/10/05

Chingford Juniors

Away

4½

–

1½

28/11/05

Chingford 1

Away

1

–

5

19/12/05

Barnet Elizabethans 2

Away

4

–

2

24/1/06

Edmonton

Home

½

–

5½

31/1/06

Chingford 1

Home

4

–

2

14/3/06

Edmonton

Away

½

–

5½

4/4/06

Waltham Forest

Home

2

–

4

18/4/06

Barking 2

Home

½

–

5½

2/5/06

Barnet Elizabethans 2

Home

6

–

0d

11/5/06

Barking 2

Away

2½

–

3½

23/5/06

Southgate

Home

4

–

2

Fixtures in italics are “double pointers”.

The club lso entered the two rapidplay knockout events organised by the League. The A team were drawn at home to Barking in the first round of the Lawrance Cup, but suffered a heavy 1½ – 6 ½ defeat to Barking on 1 November, while the B team won 10 – 2 away to Southgate in the first round of the Finchley Cup, but then lost 4½ – 3½ to Barnet Elizabethans.